I think this is what will end up happening. I'd like to see a conference of Nova, G-Town, Seton Hall, Providence, St. Johns, Marquette, DePaul, and maybe a couple of the best A-10 teams. It would be in their best interest to get away from the mess that expansion has left them with.

I work at one of the school that benefits from this...and even though I can't wait to see UConn basketball and Notre Dame everything (except football). It's just dumb.

Break football away and basketball can replace those schools with Butler, Valpo, Dayton, Temple and other A10 schools.

The schools like L'Ville, Rutgers, UConn, Cincy, USF, UCF, SMU, Houston and whoever else I'm missing can add Memphis, ECU, UMass and Tulsa. Boise and SDSU can be football only schools. Rick Pitino and Geno Aure-I don't even wanna try to spell his name...they're heads can explode and we can all laugh.

Basketball schools give the football schools a premier home for non-revenue sports. Rutgers Lacrosse needs a home too, as does USF swimming, etc. Additionally, the football and basketball schools help each other for TV deals by packaging their products together. More money for all.

If UConn were to leave though, it would remove the last football school that's a real basketball brand. The money may no longer make sense for the football schools.

Likewise, if the football league lost its BCS auto-bid, the resulting loss in revenue and TV value may cause the conference to drop football. This would allow them to keep a brand like UConn, but also give the football schools flexibility to do...whatever they needed to do with football. Probably make a football only conference with a different name. Or join the Mount-USA Union.

As of right now the Big East's strange nature does make a bit of sense. But it's still very unstable, and a few major pieces (BCS, UConn) can change the game completely.

I just can't see this working. Not only is traveling absolutely going to kill them but the matchups and schools aren't going to pull in much money in the end anyways. Nobody wants to watch Houston vs. Boise State unless the teams are both top 10 teams (or at least one). This will fail and is more of a temporary fix if anything.

Big East football was a reaction to Penn State's joining the Big Ten - and for a while it gave the best eastern independents a secure home with a BCS bid. But it was unsteady from the start, and as its power continues to wane, the Big East seems to be stacking more and more jenga blocks on a crumbling foundation. But if it doesn't last long - how does it end?

I honestly don't know that it does. Travel costs are high, but when we're only talking about football, the money that they bring in will cover it. Houston and SMU for all sports won't kill the AD budgets, and if they do they'll cut non-revenue men's sports to compensate. But Big East football will survive.

And really, which of these teams is capable of escaping? UConn, maybe. Rutgers finally looked to have turned a corner five years ago - and then fell into a sort of Illinois-like mediocrity - except in the Big East instead of the Big Ten. They're certainly not as terrible as they once were, but I think everyone expects more from a program that sits in a populous region that they do. I wonder if the Big East would have lost 'Cuse and Pitt if Rutgers had made themselves into the national brand ESPN had wanted them to be 5 years ago. Louisville is the only other school that looks somewhat attractive.

But none of those schools are really movers and shakers - they're stuck in the Big East until Notre Dame moves and they can grab their coattails. (Yes UConn is a great basketball school, but this is all about football.) And Notre Dame isn't moving unless something drastic happens - and now that the Big 12 looks somewhat stable, it's doubtful anything major happens in the big 5 conferences.

And even if some major shakeup does happen - it may make sense for the Big East to keep limping along, and keep absorbing the best mid-majors as "football only" if they're too far out there, or as full-sport members the closer they are to the basketball schools.

And in a way, isn't it good for the powers that be to have a league of the best mid-majors with a BCS birth? It kinda takes the wind out of the "Death to the BCS" sails when most decent teams play for an auto-bid. Rather than reform, the BCS just pitched a slightly larger tent.

You make some pretty good points. I haven't thought of it this way yet, but I might agree that this situation (and continuing "situations", being conference realignments and bringing the mid-majors to the "major level") may help cement the BCS as the de-facto NCAA Football post-season for some time.

I also don't view these distances between conference cities as being a huge deal (again, especially dealing with football $$ making). As someone else noted, I also can't blame schools/teams like Boise St. and Houston for doing what their doing either.

Considering all the fantastic bowl sponsorships that we have now... when will we have a conference sponsorship? For example, the Big East could become the United Airlines Conference or the Big East Conference Transported by Delta to save on travel expenses.

Serious question: will all of this realignment eventually slow down or will this be a continuous thing from now on? That could get old fast.

Good Lord, I knew he was going to say something silly with a straight face. What a comical line. They're "national" for the same reason Sparty "recruits nationally." Because people drink their milkshake regionally, so they're desperate. What incredible spin.

You can't fault schools like BSU for trying. They joined the best conference that would allow them to join. Is it BSU's fault that they finished #5 in the BCS rankings but got passed up in favor of two teams with double-digit rankings? If I was them I would be pissed too. Both the humans and the computers presumably factor in their SOS when ranking them, and then they still get discounted by the bowls.

...it's one big asset is AQ status. It is selling that asset to the highest bidders. It is, however, sowing the seeds of its own destruction. By making these mid-major schools part of an AQ league, it waters down the value of its own asset (AQ status). The BCS will thump it for doing so when the BCS contract is up for re-negotiation. Don't expect the BE to stay an AQ league, and when it loses that status, the BE will either collapse or re-constitute itself as a mostly irrelevant mid-major with a shake-up in membership.

.......is the reluctance, either on the part of the B12, or BoiseSt., to have BSU join the B12. Regionally speaking, there isn't that big of a difference between when Colorado was part of the B12 and where BSU is located. Also, the B12 would gain a strong program and make their conference stronger in the eyes of voters and fans.

Maybe Oklahoma is still hurt over their defeat by BSU and won't allow it? It's truly the only move to another conference that would have made any sense for BSU.

BSU's stadium seats about 36,000 people, many of their other sports are not nearly as BCS conference ready as their football team, and they are not an academic powerhouse. This waters down their appeal to most AQ conferences, and explains why they are BE for football only.

So, if the BE does lose its AQ status, is it a foregone conclusion another conference will replace them? Or would there just be 5 AQ qualifiers? I'm not sure if there is a better conference to replace them with.

And the BCS loses it, maybe the sixth AQ comes from any other conference champ -so you've got the five "major" conferences with their BCS bowl tie ins, and then the sixth AQ is the highest rated champion of any other conference/independnt (so TCU over WVU this season).

Otherwise, it'd be silly to take an autobid away from the Big East and give it to a lesser conference.

boy can't wait to watch those conference games... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........the big east is hoping that by bending over backwards for boise's shiny top 10 rankings that it can hold onto it's autobid. I'm gonna laugh so hard when the bcs pulls the rug out from underneath this abomination.